This invention relates generally to string instruments of the guitar family. More particularly it describes an attachment device for a guitar by which a string can be tuned in conventional manner and then, during performance, can be temporarily detuned in a selected degree. This provides a desirable flexibility in performance.
A guitar is generally provided with a tuning machine for each string by which the tension, and thus the pitch, of each string can be adjusted by the user before a performance. A typical tuning machine includes a worm gear drive for rotating an output shaft journaled in the guitar peg head, the shaft having a peg on which the string is wound. The frame of the tuning machine is attached to the guitar peg head, usually by a set of screws.
The present device is intended to be substituted for one of the conventional tuning machines on a guitar. It includes a tuning machine essentially similar to the conventional tuning machine just described, except that it is mounted on a support plate assembly which itself may be rocked arcuately through a small angle about the axis of the output shaft. A base plate provided with a bore through which the output shaft extends is attached to the guitar peg head, preferably by screws or the like received in the openings used by the mounting screws of the original tuning machine which has been removed.
The base plate has pivotally mounted thereon a lever movable between upper and lower positions by the user's finger or thumb. Downward movement of the lever permits the tension of the string to rotate the output shaft and thereby to rock the tuning machine assembly through a small angle about the shaft axis. Stop or limit means are provided for selectively adjusting the amount of angular rocking movement, and thus the amount of lowering of pitch created by the rocking movement. The user can at will move the lever back up to its original or rest position, against the tension of the string, and this cammingly rocks the tuning machine assembly back to its original position.
It is thus an object of the invention to disclose a novel attachment for a string instrument by which to selectively detune a string temporarily to a lower pitch, and to return the string to its original pitch when desired. Other objects will be understood from a study of the following description of an illustrative form of the invention taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.